Telecom. IT : IT industry accounts for 8% of Romania's GDP; AI technology is the future

The IT sector in Romania is making up 8% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), being one of the industries with the highest added value in the country, Minister of Research, Innovation and Digital Transformation Bogdan Ivan told the International Summit & Gala Award 2024 on last Wednesday."When we talk about AI and related technologies, we talk about the future, and right now, we're not just in a local or regional race, but in a global race. In my opinion, we should be focused on what we can do together, because, at the same time, we are part of the European Union, and we should share good practices with each other. Currently in Romania, the IT sector is making up over 8% of GDP, being one of the industries with the highest added value in the country (...) In the last five years, annual growth has been 2.5% and now the entire industry brings in almost EUR 9 billion every year. It is very important to have that open co-operation between the public and private sectors. Currently, we do not have a digital administration in Romania, because we still have the same architecture as 50 years ago and for this, we have over EUR 6 billion. I would like to thank ANIS and other specialists for their very good co-operation over the government cloud. We will start a public procurement procedure for the single application of the government with all over 30 public services by the end of 2024," Ivan said.He also brought up the disinformation part amid a year with many elections that will take place both in Romania and globally."We have a very important year, with four rounds of voting, and we need a very important tool to act in real time to counter disinformation. Because we have over two billion people who will choose leaders in 2024 worldwide. In Romania, we have elections for the local administrations to the European Parliament, the presidential and general elections. It is about our future and our democracy (...). A second topic regards innovation and certainly when we talk about innovation we have in Parliament the Romanian innovation strategy. We will have the beginning of the entire research framework and bring researchers to the same level as professors in universities. We are talking about a strong commitment on the part of the Romanian Government to bring value to research."Romania's Employers' Association of the Software and Services Industry (ANIS) organised the International Summit & Gala Award event, where the Excellence Awards of the IT Industry in Romania were awarded.At this year's edition of the competition, 26 proposals from 20 companies advance to the final stage.Established in 1998, ANIS represents the interests of Romanian IT companies and supports the development of the local software and services industry, the growth of both companies involved in outsourcing projects and those generating intellectual property by creating products. ANIS has over 170 members, representing both companies with Romanian and foreign capital, small or multinational companies, with headquarters in all major IT hubs in the country.ANIS members generate a significant number of highly qualified jobs. With a representation of over 65% of the total revenues generated by the IT industry at national level and approximately 42% of the total employees of the IT industry in Romania.